A Never Ending Project into Future Design Spaces

Abstract

The Never Ending Project is an international collaboration between ESAG Penninghen, Paris, Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, and the School of Visual Arts Interior Design (SVAID), New York. The project was initiated in Paris, June 2014. The 2015 brief invited interior design/architecture students from the three universities to design a drone docking and control station. This paper will explore how this project offered an insight on innovative future spaces for design education and practice through the: creativity of the brief, dynamic teamwork of the international collaborators, and using various technologies to effectively communicate and transfer design ideas between continents. The difference in time zones between Melbourne, Paris and New York allowed the students to work on the project twenty-four hours a day from the 14th-20th of September 2015. The design travelled sequentially from Melbourne to Paris, then New York and the process continued the following day for six days. Every time the design reached a new destination it was adapted according to each of the university’s site restrictions, respecting the differences in the design cultural identities. Innovative educational and technological practices sustained this design process and successfully expanded this six-day intensive design studio beyond the physical walls of traditional design spaces and practices to offer a glimpse of future design environments.